


catalog of non-definitive acts

by zenelly



Category: DREAM!ing (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 13:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17204519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenelly/pseuds/zenelly
Summary: Kasuka suffers through an existence with pieces of song filtering through his ears.





	catalog of non-definitive acts

**Author's Note:**

> Title from [Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48158/litany-in-which-certain-things-are-crossed-out) by Richard Siken
> 
> This is a soulmate AU where the song that's stuck in your head is a song your soulmate is singing. Kasuka, because he's difficult, can hear other people singing as well as his soulmate and, because he's _difficult_ hardly believes anything straightforward anyone says to him anyway, much less things people imply. Minato, please, just kiss him. He still won't believe you, but you can get kisses out of it.
> 
> This was written for the Dream!ng Secret Santa event! I wrote this for @/curelnfini on twitter, who asked for a KasuMina soulmate AU, and I hope you enjoy this! It's my first time writing the boys, but I love them so much

Kasuka suffers through an existence with pieces of song filtering through his ears.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be completely awful if the music was any good, but he doesn’t need to hear snatches of everyone else’s songs day in and day out, everyone trying to subtly find their soulmates and infecting Kasuka with their nonsense instead. He has to deal with Minato humming all hours of the day enough as it is, light and airy and vague as Kasuka brushes his hair in the morning and Minato drowses on the couch. The songs follow him from that cursed moment on, almost loud enough to drown out the teachers. It’s not like Kasuka _needs_ anything else to be dragging him down but-

-The songs just _won’t stop_.

Except then, sometimes, they do.

Sometimes, Kasuka’s mind is blissfully clear of the little snaps and bits of other people’s soul-songs, of the bits and pieces of radio hits they’re stuck humming in the hopes of coming through clearly to whoever their soulmate is and _not Kasuka_ , and there is only the clear, sweet sound of Minato’s voice.

This, Kasuka reflects, staring down at a napping Minato, is not one of those times.

Minato looks warm, stretched out on the grass as he is, but he is not in _class_ and Kasuka wouldn’t care except for how caught up in his new first-year Yanagi is. It burns through him, but he can never really fault anyone for making Yanagi so happy, even if Yanagi’s songs echoed clearer in Kasuka’s mind than any he’s heard before, and even though he said he caught Kasuka’s voice in his mind sometimes. Kasuka’s lips thin out into a frown. He swings a leg back. Kicks Minato’s ankle, and it’s not endearing at _all_ how he yawns and stretches and smiles up at Kasuka like he’s _happy to see him_.

“Kasuka! Hello~,” Minato says, singsong as he stretches, a slice of his pale belly exposed. Kasuka, irrationally, wants to yank down his shirt.

“Why are you still here? Don’t you have other, better things to be doing? And keep yourself covered or else you’ll catch a cold,” he snaps, and Minato only blinks placidly at him, smiling as he reaches out. He wraps a long-fingered hand around Kasuka’s wrist, tugging him down _on top of him_ like that’s just a _thing that people do_.

“The day is too nice for anything except naps,” Minato declares, and his thigh is between Kasuka’s, his skin warm, his hand curling around the back of Kasuka’s neck. “So I think we should nap.”

Struggling to get free is useless. Minato is a limpet at the best of times, loose and long-limbed and used to wrapping around Kasuka whenever he’s tired, but he very rarely attempts to drag Kasuka into it. “Get off of me. It’s the middle of the day-“

“And you barely slept last night, Kasuka! It’s time to sleep now. No one will notice.”

Kasuka can barely contain his flinch. Of course no one will notice. If anything, they will be glad to be rid of him for the span of a few hours. “You don’t have to remind me,” he says sullenly, but exhaustion bleeds out of him anyway, the constant psychic scream of songs weighing him down. Maybe just for today. “Don’t get any ideas about this. This is merely because I am tired and even a fool like yourself is known to have some sensible ideas sometimes.”

“Alright, alright.” Minato strokes Kasuka’s hair, tugging it out of its characteristic knot. It feels good - not that Kasuka deserves it or will ever admit it to Minato. “I read your fortune for me again today.”

Kasuka perks up just a little, squinting at him. “And?”

Minato smiles, wide and genuine. “Completely wrong, as always.”

“I’m going to get you one of these days,” Kasuka swears, thumping his head back down on Minato’s chest. Sunlight warms his back as Minato warms his front, and Kasuka sighs as he relaxes bit by bit into Minato’s soft floral scent. Like his incense and yet not at the same time. Cleaner.

Minato, fingers carding through his hair, begins humming. Idly, like he usually does. It stills the remaining noise from other students, and Kasuka’s tense muscles relax even more as he buries his face in Minato’s sternum.

He mumbles, “Every time you sing, I can’t hear anything else.”

Minato’s hand stills. His voice stops. Then, carefully, he resumes his gentle petting, though the humming remains gone. Kasuka regrets speaking up. “Is that bad? It happens to me too, but your voice is-“

“No, your voice is fine. No one can complain about your talents, Minato, even if you are lacking in every other way. It’s just. When you sing, the world gets quiet.” Kasuka doesn’t know how to explain it, the way Minato’s humming calms the clamorous racket in his head, letting Kasuka only hear one thing, finally. “It’s… nice, I suppose.”

“I like hearing you when you sing, Kasuka,” Minato says.

“Then it’s a good thing we’re partners, isn’t it?”

Minato sighs, and there’s a soft pressure at the crown of Kasuka’s head as his eyes slide closed. “I can hear you sing anywhere,” Minato whispers like a confession into his hair, and Kasuka can’t help but feel as though he needs to apologize. It must be awful, to hear him so much. A good thing he doesn’t sing out loud often, almost never outside of Dream Lives. That way, Minato doesn’t have to hear him. “Your voice is pretty, Kasuka.”

That isn’t the word he’s heard used to describe it. Unsettling, perhaps. Cursed, definitely. Minato is just being baselessly kind to say otherwise. Still, there’s a ball of fluttering warmth curling up beneath Kasuka’s ribcage, and he wonders if, just this once, he can let himself believe it. His hand curls in the soft fabric of Minato’s shirt. “You would be the only one to say so.”

“Then I’ll sing it, until you can’t hear anything else at all.” Another soft press as sleep swarms up him, and then Kasuka's mind is filled with nothing except the sweet sound of Minato's voice, bearing him into an easy sleep.


End file.
